Time Stops
by ketamine.methanol
Summary: Kenny and Kyle wander the world in search of an answer to gain their wings. K2, hinted Stendy and Creek.


**A/N: This was a Christmas gift for one of my good friends. K2, hinted Creek, and hinted Stendy. Just quiet, tranquil, heartfelt fluff.**

**Happy holidays guys.**

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"I still never understood the concept. I mean, you should be able to kiss someone whenever you want. Why wait 'til you're standing under a plant?"

"I don't know." Kenny fidgeted with the sleeves of his parka, spying in through the window at the couple almost standing under the mistletoe within their home. Kyle glanced at Kenny thoughtfully as the blond continued to observe their behaviour with a kind of passion in his eyes. Eventually they noted the plant hanging above them and the shy smiling started, followed by a preserved kiss that spoke out to Kyle with a kind of realization. People kissed for a lot of different reasons, but it was an affection that Kyle understood as something out of love. Or at least - with parents who had never had a bump in their relationship that through their lives off track, that was how he held it in his mind.

For Kenny, things were different. A broken home brought the idea of true love to him in only fairy tales, something of an illusion conveyed to gullible minds by the media. Those Christmas dinners were something that he didn't really understand, and going to church together on Christmas morning was just a force of habit and less of a gathering of souls. Seeing two people engage in something romantic was as thrilling as sitting in a movie theatre. Partaking in something so sacred himself was almost unimaginable some days.

Kyle stood up slowly, finally tiring of the couple within the house and ruffling his wings to loosen them. Unfortunately flight was not something available to him until his tasks on earth were completed. Such was typical of a guardian angel in training; not even Kenny had his full plume yet, and Kyle took a moment to look at the other teenager's white wings as snow started to fall, getting lost between the smooth feathers.

The pair travelled from roof top to roof top in swift jumps, laughing together like the kids they used to be. Some ten odd years had passed since the school burnt down when they were seventeen. They'd been the only two not to make it out; and with something to peg Kenny down to the afterlife, he'd taken command of his death sentence at last and decided to stay with Kyle, perceivably his best friend, and take on the task of angel training to finally become more at peace with himself.

It was funny how things worked in the afterlife - no set religion to hold them together, but more so a mix of all things into one large cornucopia of confusing terms and customs that neither of them cared to study. The background wasn't important; in the issue of the after life, it was each angel for his or herself. Occasionally, they travelled together. There was no commanding figure to tell them what to do; the nature of the earth knew whether you carried a good soul or not, and that was just the way things were.

In theory, they didn't exist. Simply a part of the world in their own sense; not matter or material, but capable of thought and touch. Souls dancing in the night time, a passing thought through the mind of a living person, or a trick of the light in the corner. Bad souls typically turned into shadows, but the shadows and the angels got along in harmony no less. There was nothing to fight over; it was true freedom on either end.

They finally touched the ground, walking side by side for quite some time. The cold didn't bite into them as it would a living person, and they walked in constant comfort. The night was fresh and crisp and the houses were well lit, all kinds of ornaments available to solicit the spirit of Christmas. Kyle passed his old house, likewise blinding with a symphony of lights about its structure; his family didn't live there anymore. They'd moved away some time shortly after he'd died.

Kenny glanced at Kyle as he eyed his old home with a sense of longing, before he felt a hand slide into his own. Kyle led him away toward the door, the two of them phasing through the wood like no barrier was there at all. As they gazed about the interior together, warm scents of dinner and pie filled the air, bringing an interested smile to both of their faces. A little girl jogged by unknowingly with her baby brother in tow, the toddler barely making it along as the two ran straight through the two spirits. The baby brother stopped, and turned to stare, which was typical; the young mind saw things that the older mind didn't. It was still part of their world - Kenny and Kyle's world. In tune with the nature of things, so delicate and tender and totally fresh, free of manipulation. The two older boys smiled at the toddler and waved together while his sister tugged his arm roughly.

"Come on Kyle! Dad's gonna get mad if we don't make it to the table!"

The two year old didn't budge, and Kenny and Kyle turned and smirked at eachother. Kyle rested his hand on the kid's head, egging him on to follow his older sister along with himself and Kenny into the livingroom. Stanley Marsh stood there, setting the table carefully with an apron on that brought laughter to both Kyle and Kenny's faces. The two wandered over as the twenty-seven year old loomed over the prepared dinner, lifting his children into their chairs. Kyle was the first to initiate Stan's hug, Kenny soon joining in. Stan stood straighter unknowingly, gripping his arms with an uncertainty as he glanced around.

"God, it just got cold in here, ay guys?"

The black-haired toddler, now tucked in his high chair, pointed. "Aynjahw."

Stan looked past him at their Christmas tree in the corner, nodding to the angel perched at the top. "That's right. Angel, Kyle."

The kid stuck out his lip and thudded his highchair's deck, pointing at Kenny and Kyle furiously. "Aynjahw! Aynjahw!" The two teenagers enjoyed the lasting moments of the kid's frustration before they made their leave.

The next house to visit was that of another one of their old schoolmates. The two peered in through the window frame at a lonely looking Tweek Tweak sprawled out in an armchair across from the house's fireplace. Kenny spoke at last, leaning close to Kyle's ear.

"You think Craig will make it?"

"He's coming home for Christmas. Didn't you know?"

Kenny turned to him, wide-eyed. "Really?"

Kyle nodded knowingly, having the intuition for these kinds of things since they'd died; sure enough, a figure lugged its way up the front steps of the two-story home, looking worn from war, knocking on the door. Tweek almost seized into the fire from his chair, hurrying to the front door. Kyle couldn't help but smile as the blond stared as he pulled the wooden barrier from between him and his partner, breaking into tears and throwing his arms around the soldier's neck. They kissed, and kissed, and Kyle came back to square one.

"You know they're the only openly gay couple in town?"

Kenny nodded. "And yet Craig made it into the marines."

Kyle shot him a sideways glance, before linking arms with him thoughtfully and ruffling his wings.

"You wanted to do that, didn't you?"

Kenny nodded slowly, though not with a hint of loss in his expression. He could have gone back, but he chose this instead. He had no regrets; here there was no time, and eternally a sense of satisfaction. You were always working, watching. There was no waiting or anxiety. Just movement.

"I'm happy with my choice."

They laced fingers and skipped away together over the hill. Snow rested undisturbed beneath their feet as they moved like a wind song and dance, barely whispering their ways through the trees. It was Kyle who ended their courting, collapsing into the snow with no acknowledgeable motion, only a bit of a gust that sifted some of the top layer from the surface.

"I don't understand what they wanted us to do, Kenny. I don't understand how we're supposed to understand love. There's love everywhere but we're not growing into full angels, like they said we would when we found it. I feel at a loss."

Kenny glanced down at the redhead, before dropping against the bank beside him. They stared together around at the illuminated hillside, snow aglow from the moon and stars. The trees clawed their silhouettes into the skies and the bushes crouched low in the cold like huddles animals. Kenny considered everything thoughtfully.

"I think it's a trap, Kyle."

"A trap?"

"Yeah. Love's like a trap. It's unexpected. It just... you kind of walk into it."

Kyle sat up and glanced down at the blond thoughtfully. Kenny glanced up at his face before his eyes caught sight of something that made him smile, and he sat up slowly, pointing up.

A piece of holly dangled by a string from a treebranch, some anonymous child's writing on the school-made nametag of the arts-and-crafts designed mistletoe. Kyle glanced up at it with him before looking down at his friend slowly. He met Kenny half way, their kisses tender, and Kyle's a bit more inexperienced. Theirs mouths parted but their entwined hands did not, and they nuzzled and leaned against eachother, taking in the other's energy by the simple contact. They repeated their process, kissing once again with their heads telling him that it was just because of the mistletoe, or just because of the quiet or because it was so secretive and sneaky... but both their wings reached their full plume as they held eachother with smiling faces in the dark.


End file.
